Neuqua Valleys three-year wait for a seventh conference title ended on Saturday.

The Wildcats dominated in a 62-37 win over South Elgin, clinching the outright Upstate Eight Valley title with an 11-1 conference record.

It was Neuquas first title since 2010 and seventh in school history dating back to 2002.

Its just so difficult to do, Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton said of winning conference. Weve had to fight through injuries, sickness and being pushed every night by great opponents. Were very proud of the guys.

The Wildcats (22-2 overall) jumped all over South Elgin (5-18, 0-11) from the opening tip.

Jabari Sandifer drove through the lane for an easy layup on the first offensive possession. Jason Lonn followed with a 3-pointer, and then a fastbreak layup by Sandifer put the Wildcats up 7-0.

The quick start was fueled by 10 first-quarter points off the fastbreak as Neuqua Valley finished with 18 for the game.

Connor Raridon put the exclamation point on a dominating first quarter with a 3-pointer at the buzzer that gave the Wildcats a 24-5 lead.

The Storm was held to just 2 first-quarter field goals and was forced into 13 first-half turnovers.

South Elgin runs a lot of motion offense, so when they tried to cut back door, we tried to get the back side help coming around, Neuqua Valley senior Brad Mikulecky said. They got us a couple of times on it, but for the most part we were able to hold our own.

Leading 40-17 heading into the third quarter, Neuqua Valley opened with a 12-2 run as Pat Kenny started things off with a baseline jumper, followed by two straight fastbreak layups by Sandifer.

Kenny and Sandifer combined for 10 of the 12 points during that run.

With a commanding 52-19 lead, Sutton pulled the starters at the 2:33 mark of the third quarter.

South Elgin scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter, starting with a basket in the paint by Jake Amrhein and ending with a crossover dribble and floater by Matthew Smith, who led his team with 12 points.

The way we started the game off, we just werent following the game plan offensively as far as what (Neuqua Valley) was doing to us, South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. It finally clicked in the last seven minutes of the game, but by then it was too late.